This 3 person finale thing on Survivor is ridiculous. They should go back to 2. Notice how on Big Brother which is basically indoor Survivor they have never gone to 3 person finals. It was ok to try but it clearly has proven to be stupid. The 3rd finalist is always the ultimate goat, almost always receiving 0 votes, so it is basically the same as if were the 2 person final it would have been otherwise. Lets look:
Season 13- Ozzy, Yul, Becky. 5-4 for Yul over Ozzy. Becky of course got 0 votes and you could have easily predicted pre finals she would get 0 votes.
Season 14- Earl, Cassandra, Dreamz. 9-0-0 for Earl. I will be very generous and say Dreamz wasnt a total goat despite getting 0 votes. Cassandra was a huge goat.
Season 15- Todd, Courtney, Amanda. 4-2-1 Todd over Courtney over Amanda. OK maybe the only REAL final 3 ever, that was worthwhile. Amanda actually could have won with a better FTC speech.
Season 17- Robert, Susie, Sugar. 4-3-0 Robert win over Susie. Sugar was nothing but a punching bag and never had a prayer. Once again an unneccessary extra. Her presence did give some the opportunity for some hilarious jury smackdowns on her though, so I guess in that sense she was worthwhile.
Season 19- Russell, Natalie, Mick. 7-2 win for Russell over Natalie. In the biggest Survivor controversy ever between Natalie and Russell you even forget the 3rd finalist- Mick entirely. Which is just fine, as he was entirely forgettable. The FTC where half of the jury members berated him harshly, and the other half didnt even acknowledge him said enough. Also when you get 0 votes vs the weakest Survivor winner ever and the most hated Survivor contender ever, what does that say. Another pointless goat/dead weight finalist.
Season 20- Pavarti, Sandra, Russell. 6-3 win for Sandra over Pavarti. Another controversy, but essentialy it was always Sandra vs Pavarti. Russell managed to play an even worse social game, and nowhere near as great a strategic game as his debut season (albeit one which none of these ever knew of), and was so much a total non factor that Sandra’s win over Pavarti was essentialy based on her doing a better job explaining to the jury she tried harder to get Russell out, and reminding them that Pavarti had ties with him through the game. You couldnt even win being associated with Russell anymore, let alone being him.
Season 21- Fabio, Chase, Matthew. 5-4 for Fabio over Chase. I barely even remember Matthew, so he was probably another dragged as a dead weight pawn at the end.
Season 22- Rob, Phillip, Natalie. 8-1 Rob over Phillip. Hahahaha, funniest final 3 ever. I split my side laughing at the time. How Rob managed to take arguably not just one, but the TWO poorest/easiest to defeat final 3 players in Survivor history is beyond me, but hats off to him. That does take some impressive talent/skill to be sure. This is definitely a case of a final 1, with not just 1 but two goats. Shame on him for forever throwing away his friendship with Grant (who cut off all contact post show), just because he was scared of any sort of real competition, and makes me doubt this whole “best Survivor game played in history” tag some credited him with if he felt he couldnt win against anything but this, but that is another topic. Gawd, he was even scared about Ashley getting to the final instead of Phillip or Natalie at the end. I wonder which of Natalie or Phillip the Robfather would have deemed more useless and taken with him to the F2 had there been one, but this is yet another example of the pointlessness of a F3 vs a F2. The vote for Phillip was probably nothing more than the jury pre final deciding together they would rather Phillip finish 2nd than Natalie (for whatever reason) so someone needed to throw him a bone/vote btw, and so was purely a BS vote.
Season 23- Coach, Sophie, Albert. Sophie defeats Coach 6-3. Pretty much a vile final 3 all around, but it was clear all along this was always going to be a battle between Coach and Sophie. Albert was never a factor of any sort. Each jury member preceded to rip him a new one at the FTC. In fact I seem to remember half of them getting up and saying first off they werent voting for him no matter what, but preceded to ask him a question to further embarass him if possible. The final 6 were all planning to take Albert to the F3 if they got there, since they knew he turned it into a F2. It was basically a decision between a mediocre quality person who played a mediocre game (Sophie) vs a terrible person who played a great game (Coach, and in which the bitter jury made another terrible call they should be ashamed of, but that is another topic), but Albert even against such imposing opposition was never a factor, and was yet another dead weight 3rd finalist.
Season 24- Kim, Chelsea, Sabrina. Kim beats Sabrina 7-2. Really neither of these were ever on any planet beating Kim, and I was shocked Sabrina even got 2 votes. Chelsea was definitely the “extra” finalist of the trio though.
Season 25- Denise, Lisa, Michael. Denise wins 6-1-1. Sadly this is one of the “best” endorsements of the 3 person final you can find with each finalist atleast receiving a vote showing the other two both stirred a little something in the jury, LOL!
Season 26- John, Dawn, Sherri. John wins 8-0-0. I will be generous to Dawn and call her the legit 2nd finalist, even though she didnt get a vote, and the FTC made it clear she had no chance after her brutal betrayal of Brenda. Sherri was a total dead weight finalist, who they only took to the finals as a reward for going along with them in getting Brenda out probably. She even admitted she just wanted someone to carry her to the F3 to win some more money.
Season 27- Tyson, Monica, Gervase. Tyson beats Monica 7-1. Gervase wasnt winning up against anyone, let alone someone like Tyson. This was strictly a F2 between Tyson and Monica, which again didnt need a 3rd finalist.
Season 29- Natalie, Jaclyn, Missy. Natalie 5 votes, Jaclyn 2 votes, Missy 1 vote. This was actually truly the best F3 yet. You thought going in each of the 3 might have a shot, although Natalie always seemed the favorite. Maybe a new trend? Lets hope so, otherwise axe the F3 thing for good.
So as you can see the 3rd finalist is almost always dead weight, receiving 0 votes almost everytime. I could see the point of a F3 if you sometimes had a 4-3-2 vote or a 5-2-2 vote. Those would be cool to see. Even if the 3rd finalist often got 1 vote, which can make all the difference amongst the other 2. The 3rd finalist as you can see above though, is simply just…there.
To break down the stats in 11 of the 14 times a F3 has been used the 3rd finalist received 0 votes. In 0 out of 14 has the 3rd finalist received 2 votes, which was probably the hope when this was instituted.