Survivor: Game Changers spotlight: Will Jeff Varner’s game be as a thrill ride again?
In this latest edition of our Survivor: Game Changers spotlight, we’re focusing primarily on a guy in Jeff Varner who proved himself the past two times to be ridiculously entertaining. Even though he was only in a small handful of episodes the last time he played the game, he was TREMENDOUS through almost every moment. He played hard, he was funny, and he also looked a little like Fred Flintstone with the sleeves ripped off of his shirt.
Can Varner pull off as great of a look, and make the jury for the first time, in this season? In this spotlight below, we’re going to do our best to figure that out.
Past performance – 10th place (Survivor: Australia), 17th place (Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance)
Historical perspective – Jeff remains the first player in the history of the show to be eliminated in a tiebreaker vote, and in retrospect, that still is a tough pill to swallow if you pay the what-if game. What happened if there wasn’t the Skupin evacuation, and the Kucha tribe went to the merge with the numbers? He had a decent shot that time. Unfortunately, in his second go-around in the game we saw him suffer an injury, one that played a factor in him being voted out since he wasn’t able to contribute much in challenges. Basically, he’s been eliminated twice with extenuating circumstances playing a role.
Strengths – He’s a really likable guy with a great sense of humor, and that does go a certain degree on this show. He’s also someone who may be able to enter the game with a smaller target on him. Sure, he was a little bit of a whirling dervish the last time he was out there, but being the fourth person voted out doesn’t make him into the next Tony or Sandra. There are bigger fish to fry, and if he can lay low and not cause any trouble, odds are that he could skate by for a little while.
Weaknesses – Out of the guys this season, Varner is not only one of the older ones, but he’s also not much of a challenge beast. He’s someone who also doesn’t hold his tongue sometimes, and he may struggle to get out of his own way. While there were extenuating circumstances in his previous two vote-outs, nobody was forced to write down his name. Therefore, there are things he could’ve done differently in terms of his strategic and social game. For example, what happens if he makes a bigger push to keep Vytas in the early going on his second season?
Our prediction
Varner is a guy who, out of everyone we’ve spoken about, we have a hard time projecting in terms of their overall performance. There’s a part of us that wants to think he makes it far just because we love the guy and want him to win. Yet, there’s also a part of us that thinks that he’s just an easy person to get rid of pre-merge because he’s not going to carry you to many challenge wins. The odds are that he falls somewhere in between and either narrowly misses or makes the jury. If he can find the right allies and keep his head low, there is a chance for Jeff to go far into the game.
Before you go, we invite you to check out all of our other spotlights when it comes to the season. (Photo: CBS.)
What is your take on Jeff going into Survivor: Game Changers? Share in the comments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2y5nUMiZ7k