Each week during this season of Survivor, I’ll be ranking the castaways in terms of best chance to win the game. Last week, Simone was voted off after being ranked No. 17 of the 17 remaining players.
Week 3 Power Rankings:
1. Ben (Last week: 1): He seems open to working with whoever he needs to in order to advance, as evidenced by his potential new partnership with Chrissy. He’s playing a smart game so far.
2. Ryan (Last week: 2): Nothing so far leads me to believe he won’t make a deep run, so no reason to drop him down the list.
3. Chrissy (Last week: 4): The former Mom Squad member looks like she removed herself from the bottom of the Heroes tribe last week and I’m more optimistic about her prospects now that she has Ben’s ear. She seems to be very smart and thinks several steps ahead.
4. Joe (Last week: 15): I originally had Joe at No. 2 to start the season and dropped him all the way to 15th last week after he was over aggressive in the first episode. Now that he seems to have calmed down — and found an idol with the help of Cole — I feel a bit better about his chances of making a run.
5. Ali (Last week: 8): She continues to be the most pleasant surprise of the season for me and is obviously a smart player. For example: When Simone was on the outs, she saw it as a potential opportunity. That’s just good gameplay (although Simone was ultimately given the boot).
6. Mike (Last week: 5): I’m worried he will be targeted by Joe before the tribes swap, which could lead to an early exit. But if he survives that far, he should be a key player because no one will look at him as a target.
7. Devon (Last week: 3): I still really like his partnership with Ryan, but Devon himself doesn’t seem like the kind of strategic player who could ultimately win it all. If he makes the merge, he’ll have to win a lot of immunity challenges to take the whole game.
8. JP (Last week: 6): His ability to stay calm and try to be a provider by catching fish is very wise at this point in the game. Ozzy has made several decent runs that way, so that model could work for awhile.
9. Ashley (Last week: 7): She’s still plugging away. For now, she just needs to keep her head down and let Alan be a bigger target on the Heroes tribe.
10. Cole (Last week: 11): He helped Joe find the idol, but then Joe seemed to hint at wanting to get him out at some point soon after. Plus, it’s hard to tell whether his potential showmance with Jessica will hurt his game.
11. Lauren (Last week: 9): It looked like she could have a potential alliance with Ali, which isn’t a bad thing since she professes not to be much of a people person.
12. Roark (Last week: 12): It’s still hard to get a feel for her game, as she hasn’t been featured much on the show so far. That said, she’s not an obvious target in the next couple weeks.
13. Jessica (Last week: 13): Her relationship with Cole is still concerning, and I don’t know how much that will affect her game.
14. Desi (Last week: 14): She seems like mostly a non-factor so far.
15. Alan (Last week: 16): The former football player was happy he created suspicion at camp by targeting JP and Ashley. That kind of game play might work at times, but it’s not the recipe for a $1 million win.
16. Patrick (Last week: 10): He’s starting to run wild, annoy people and wear on everyone’s nerves at camp. Not exactly a recipe for the ultimate winner of Survivor.
Eliminated:
Week 1: Katrina (ranked No. 6 of 18 remaining players)
Week 2: Simone (ranked No. 17 of 17 remaining players)