‘Survivor’ Fans Remember Show’s Worst Challenge Reward
Castaways on Survivor have to weather a whole lot. The challenges they face range from a lack of food, the elements, and physical contests, to social issues and secret plots. So when castaways earn a chance at reward, it can be a major morale booster. And when there’s food involved, you can bet everyone gets scrambling. However, the Survivor: South Pacific castaways were probably pretty disappointed when they discovered they’d received what many fans recall as the worst challenge reward in the show’s history — an Adam Sandler movie.
‘Survivor’ contestants were rewarded with an Adam Sandler movie
In one of the more bizarre challenge setups in Survivor history, Jeff Probst asked the South Pacific castaways to get dolled up with body paint. The had them put on war faces, and then paired them up in “twin” groups.
After yet another typically grueling Survivor challenge, the winning tribe — which includes Sophie, Coach, and Brandon Hantz — are informed that they’ve won tickets to see Jack and Jill starring Adam Sandler prior to its theatrical release.
Jeff Probst then grasps at straws to give an explanation as to how Jack and Jill and twins relate to the Survivor experience. It is a loose connection at best. While the castaways do have to suffer through an Adam Sandler movie, they are at least given access to movie snacks.
One castaway claims CBS producers asked them to laugh and clap
Of course, the Survivor castaways act as if they’re thrilled to be seeing Jack and Jill. They clap excitedly when receiving the prize, and are shown laughing and smiling like children on a field day in the theater.
Everyone except for Sophie, that is. The legend herself, who some fans now call Stone-Faced Sophie, was clearly not enthused by the film. In various scenes viewers are shown Coach and Brandon Hantz laughing it up, while Sophie remains unmoved in the background.
Twitter account SurvivorQuotesX posted a series of photos of Sophie looking unamused at the film.
“Literally the worst movie I’ve ever seen. We were cued to laugh by production,” Albert Destrade revealed in a reply to the tweet. He tagged both Sophie and Coach in his post.
‘Survivor’ fans react to the reward
To this day, Survivor fans get a kick out of the Jack and Jill reward. The scenes with Sophie are one of the sources of her “Stone-Face” moniker, and many fans felt as if the “reward” was more akin to torture.
“The hilarious contrast between Rick and Sophie’s reactions will always make it one of the best rewards ever,” wrote one Redditor.
“The intended audience for Jack and Jill was shellshocked humans who had been separated from society for several weeks in a stressful competitive environment,” joked one user.
“Sophie (girl in the back) looked like she was having an existential crisis while watching the movie,” added another Redditor.
“If it wasn’t bad enough that they’re forced to respond positively to a movie in the first place, they were given one of the worst movies of all time, in terms of movies that are pretty well-known/famous,” wrote another fan of the show.
Some fans pointed out that another season did feature a group winning a viewing of Jack Black’s Gulliver’s Travels, but the general consensus was that Jack and Jill was a worse fate.
