Is Survivor 51 a Bad Season for Women? Pre-Merge Boots by Gender, Seasons 41 to 51

The short answer

Aaliyah, Ana, Patt, Jenna, Alexis and Linnea: every castaway voted out of Survivor 51 so far is a woman. Rob, the only man to leave, quit on Day 6 after medical found nothing to pull him for. The cast started at 11 women and 10 men, according to Parade, which leaves nine men and five women going into Episode 6.

So the complaint on Reddit is fair as a description. Whether it is unusual is a numbers question, and the new era has nine seasons of numbers to check it against.

Pre-merge boots, Survivor 41 to 49

This counts everyone voted out before the merged tribe's first Tribal Council, from each season's Wikipedia article. Quits and medical evacuations are listed separately, because nobody voted for them. Seasons 41 to 48 also had an "earn the merge" vote, held after the individual game began but before the merged tribe existed. It is in the main count, and the last column shows the totals without it.

Two things stand out:

• Women do go first slightly more often in the new era, but not by much. 29 to 23 is close to even, and without the earn-the-merge votes it is 23 to 22.
• Seasons swing hard either way. Survivor 43 voted out five women and one man before the merge. Survivor 47 went the other way, two women and four men.

Six in a row is new for this era

The clearest difference is the streak. In seasons 41 to 49, the longest run of women voted out at the start of a season was four: Survivor 43 (Morriah, Justine, Nneka and Lindsay) and Survivor 44 (Maddy, Helen, Claire and Sarah, either side of a medevac and a quit). Five of those nine seasons voted a man out first.

Survivor 51 is at six, and it hasn't merged. Parade and TVLine both counted six straight on October 22, setting Rob's quit aside.

Why it might be happening

None of the six were voted out simply for being women, and the votes have aired. Here is what the record shows:

• Two were blindsides inside their own alliances. Patt went out 6–5 in Episode 3 when Lewis and Carter swung against the majority, and Linnea after two 4–4 ties in Episode 5. The Linnea breakdown has every step.
• Two were swap casualties. Jenna in Episode 4 and Alexis in Episode 5 both went home from the new Savu, where the Helicopter Alliance had the numbers.
• Nobody has had to win individual immunity yet. Every vote so far has followed a tribe challenge loss.

Every boot and its vote count is on the eliminations timeline, and every ballot is on the Survivor 51 votes page.

None of the six will vote for the winner. Only castaways voted out after the merge sit on the jury.

What to watch in Episode 6

Nine men and five women are left across three tribes. The Episode 6 pick'em on the predictions page closes when the episode airs, and it is the place to put your read of whether the streak reaches seven.

Cast photos: Robert Voets/CBS

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