Fans Still Can't Get Over the Time Erik Gave Up Immunity on 'Survivor'
Survivor fans continue to talk about Erik Reichenbach giving up his immunity idol 18 years later. It was considered the dumbest move in the game, but there have been 34 more seasons since it aired. There is one other move fans consider worse.
Fans Debate What's the Worst 'Survivor' Move
There is a new Reddit thread defending Erik. The fan explained that viewers forget "How desperate of a position he was in" for allies and "He was against Cirie [Fields] and Parvati [Shallow] who we all know are master class social players."
The writer argued that the Heroes tribe in Heroes vs. Villains agreed to send their idol to someone on the Villains tribe. It went to Russell Hantz. Other people commented other moments.
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"The men's tribe going to tribal council after winning immunity on One World is the dumbest move in [the] history of the show," one of the top-liked comments read.
"Also [Yung Woo Hwang] taking Tony [Vlachos] to the end over [Kassandra McQuillen]," another fan suggested.
The other commenters disagreed with the original poster. "You…never see talked about?" a commenter replied. "JT [Thomas] sending the idol to Russell in HvV is one of the most discussed events in Survivor, ever. Probably top 5! The reunion of HvV literally has a segment comparing it to the other dumbest moves in survivor history like Erik, and proclaiming it even dumber than that!"
"JT sending the idol is talked about loads. It's still less dumb than Erik's move," another user replied.
It looks like this debate might never stop resurfacing. But at least newer castaways have learned from these seasons and haven't repeated their mistakes.
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This story was originally published May 12, 2026 at 5:01 PM.