Survivor

All right, Carolyn. You ready? - So I'm just, like, talking?

- Like... - Yeah, to me.

Just pretend we're just you and I shooting the bull.

About wh... Like, just saying who I am?

Yeah. "I'm Carolyn. I'm a drug counselor.

I'm from a suburb of the Twin Cities."

Whatever you want to say, however you want to phrase it.

- Make sense? -

This is the easiest one.

When I got the call that I was going to be onSurvivor

on August 13 at 04:56 p.m.,

I immediately started preparing. I've got, like,

spreadsheets and spreadsheets of Survivor data that I've taken.

I 3D printed a ton of puzzles.

I'm just so ready to see all my hard work

pay off.

Being a venture capitalist,

I have to kind of judge people,

decide in less than 30 minutes whether I should

give them a million dollars

to build a company.

Uh, now I have to prove

to 17 random strangers

that I deserve a million dollars.

I teach yoga and meditation,

and I've learned that

our word is our want.

You speak it into existence and it happens.

I am going to be the next Sole Survivor.

Bing. How are you gonna do it?

I am going to build personal, emotional connections.

Bing, bing, bing, bing.

There's no way this is real. Like, this is amazing.

I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I can't wait to see Jeff.

I can't wait to not eat.

Not shower, not brush my teeth.

Poop in the ocean. Bring it!

These 18 strangers

will be abandoned in the islands of Fiji.

I wasn't supposed to live past five years old, so

I'm not afraid of anything.

They must learn to adapt

or they'll be voted out.

This is, like, the ultimate test,

and I love taking tests.

In the end, only one will remain to claim

the million-dollar prize.

I have so much excitement right now. Like,

I would love to explode and just jump through the camera.

Let's go!

Who will have what it takes

to outwit, outplay and outlast all the rest?

This is Survivor44.

Come on in.

Ooh!

I kept telling myself,

"This isn't going to feel real

until your feet hit the sand."

And I'm looking down and my feet are hitting

the sand, and I'm like...

"Oh, crap." Like, this is real.

Like, I actually have to do this now.

I'm looking around, analyzing everybody.

Trying to size everyone up and down.

Just, like, game mode.

My heart just starts pounding.

I've been dreaming of this day for so long.

Whoa...

- Oh, my God. - Oh, my God.

- Oh, my God! - Wow.

- Aah! - Aah! - Aah!

We're here!

Welcome to.

Survivor44.

You're here.

For 22 years,

Survivor has been exploring the idea

of group dynamics

and interpersonal relationships in a really unique way.

You take a group of strangers,

strip them of everything.

You abandon them,

force them to create a new society

while relying on each other.

- That's the group dynamic. - Aah!

Then you put this game on top of it

where you have to vote players out.

- Michaela. - What?!

And in the end, the last player left

wins a million dollars.

That's the interpersonal part.

To win Survivor,

you have to be excellent at both.

And what makes it so tricky is you can

never predict what is going to happen

because it's always new players,

so it's always a new game,

which is why you are constantly assessing

and adapting, which is what you're doing right now

with first impressions.

Guy in the front, what's your name?

- Hi, I'm Yam Yam. Yam Yam. You've got

a group of people you've never met.

You're going to rely on each other quickly -Yeah.

To live in this jungle. What do you want to see

- from a tribe member? - I want to see someone

that's just gonna give it all,

'cause we're here to win and we need each other.

If you have to puke out everything you have inside,

if you have to sweat every tear, we are family here, so

bring it. I'll grab your puke bag,

I'll wipe up your tears, you know?

Woman in the front right here... what's your name?

- Frannie. Frannie. Interesting

what Yam Yam just said. He said "We are a family." He's been

standing next to these people for less than a minute,

and they are family. Is it because of the Buff?

Is it because you're divided? What gives someone a sense that

"we're family"?

Uh, as soon as we jumped off these boats together,

we were all bonded together. I don't know.

We're just standing here, it's something about this color.

We're breathing each other's bad breath already.

Like, the bonds are forming quickly

and I think they're gonna be really tight.

Guy on the end...

- the beard... what's your name? - Matthew.

Matthew. Any fear right now

of anything?

I'm just trying to figure out what's going on right now.

I don't even know. I mean, the anxiety is so high. So,

I mean, I'm sure I should be fearful,

but I'm not there right now.

I just try to take deep breaths and try to hold it all in

because if I don't, I feel like my heart's just gonna

plop right out here and just make a mess

out of everybody in the front row.

- So I'm just trying to hold it in right now

and maybe refocus that into the challenge ahead of us.

All right, let's get into it.

- - Tribe names.

Wearing orange: Ratu.

Ratu! -

In the middle, in green: Soka.

Soka!

And on the end, in purple: Tika.

Tika!

Tika, yeah!

All right, we are gonna birth you into this game right now

with your first reward challenge. Here's how it works.

One pair from each tribe is gonna race down the beach

under a series of obstacles,

grab a puzzle piece and head back.

Then the next pair goes. You're gonna do that

until every player has retrieved

one puzzle piece.

Once you have all the pieces,

two players will use them

to assemble a puzzle.

Once the puzzle's done,

three different players will race

to release the rings from a very tall pole.

The first tribe to finish earns their camp supplies.

Pot, machete, flint.

It is not much,

but out here it is literally everything.

It gives you a big head start.

The two losing tribes will have to go to

their camp and try to earn it another way.

The second tribe to finish will get to choose

whether they want to do the sweat task

or the savvy task, -Oh.

And the last tribe to finish will get

what's left. Big stakes.

First decision you need to make:

who are your pairs?

I'll give you a minute to figure that out.

Here we go. Survivor44 is about to get underway.

Survivors ready.

Go! First pairs

- out of the gate. -

Got to get under that first beam,

then through the mud.

Brandon hits the mud first.

There goes Matt.

- -

: Go, go, go, go, go.

Matt's through,

Kane is through, Brandon's through.

There you go, Brandon. That's how you do it.

Now you're back in the mud.

Nothing is easy on Survivor.

Bruce bleeding already.

Got to drop 'em on the table.

Kane coming back.

You're good, go!

Hey, we got to get in the middle.

You're good, Soka!

Come on, Tika!

You're good, Tika.