Survivor 41: Are fire tokens gone, at least for now?

As we prepare for the Survivor 41 premiere on CBS tomorrow night, let’s talk a little about twists. Or, to be specific, let’s talk about fire tokens. They were a huge part of Winners at War, as they brought an economy to the game that allowed players to compete for advantages or punish others. There are a few good moments that came from them, whether it be Tyson taking advantage of a jar of peanut butter or Tony getting handed an unfortunate punishment after the merge.

In general, though, the prevailing opinion on this twist was that it was too complicated and it forced viewers to more or less watch with a notepad; otherwise, it was hard to keep track of who had the most tokens and how they planned on using them.

New Survivor 41 preview video! Take a look at some of what we had to say about a handful of the newly-announced twists for the season. Once you watch, remember to SUBSCRIBE to Matt & Jess on YouTube; there are more updates coming that you don’t want to miss.

So are fire tokens gone, at least for the time being? That seems to be the case, at least based on what show host Jeff Probst had to say to TVLine recently:

Funny story about those fire tokens. The original idea for Survivor 41 was to birth a new version of Survivor formed around an economy. Players would earn tokens by completing tasks or winning challenges, they could wager their fire tokens to earn more, and could then purchase items with their fire tokens. We spent many months working out the minutiae of the actual economy and a pricing system for items. Fortunately, that creative was trashed in favor of focusing on ideas that simply made the game more fun. That was the only thing we cared about: Was it fun? If so it went into the creative hopper, and if not, it was tossed in the bin. I’m happy to report that we came up with a lot of very fun and very dangerous ideas!

We think there’s always a chance they come back down the road but in general, we think that’s unlikely. Instead, Survivor is moving into a new era where some other elements of the game are being emphasized. There’s still danger and survival, but also a greater sense of urgency with only 26 days as opposed to 39. We also expect very few returning players for at least the next few seasons as the show tries to usher in a younger viewership and rely less on what came before.

Related – Check out some more news when it comes to Survivor

Do you ever want to see Fire Tokens again, whether it be in Survivor 41 or at some other people down the road?

Be sure to share right now in the attached comments! Once you do just that, stick around for some other updates on the series. (Photo: CBS.)