Earn the Merge

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Earn the Merge
Survivor Gameplay
Description	The remaining castaways, without tribes, compete in an Immunity Challenge where the winning team officially enters the merge while the losing team will have to survive the vote before entering the merge themselves.
Appearances	Survivor 41-present

Earn the Merge (also informally referred to as Mergatory) is an event where the final twelve or thirteen castaways compete for a spot in the merged tribe.

Overview

On brand with the "new era" of Survivor, the Earn the Merge occurs at the end of the pre-merge phase of the game. The three competing tribes will abandon their tribe colors and be divided into two teams of equal numbers. These teams will compete in an Immunity Challenge where the winning team earns the right to enter the merge and enjoy the customary feast that comes with it. All members of the winning team will earn their merge Buff, signifying their membership in the merged tribe, and be granted individual immunity at the next Tribal Council where a member of the losing team will be voted out. The collective group will begin living at the merge camp. Regardless of which team the castaways are on, the whole group will attend Tribal Council to vote someone out, after which the remaining players are officially merged.

In Survivor 41 and Survivor 42, the Hourglass Advantage was introduced to possibly reverse the results of the challenge, stripping the winning team of their immunity and transferring it to the losing team, including the player who broke the Hourglass. In both seasons, the non-immune players competed in an individual Immunity Challenge.

In Survivor 43, the Hourglass was explicitly announced to no longer be in play, guaranteeing the winning team immunity. In addition, because of the odd number of players at the final thirteen, the sit-out was given the right to bet on which team would win the challenge. If they made the correct bet, they would also receive immunity and will join the winning team on the reward; this mechanic was reused in Survivor 45 and Survivor 46. In Survivor 44, the final twelve was divided into two teams of six, removing the need for sit-outs.

In Survivor 47 and Survivor 48, the Reward and Immunity Challenges were played separately. The thirteen castaways first divided into two teams to play in a Reward Challenge, which determined who would advance to compete in an individual Immunity Challenge. A Challenge Advantage was also available for one player to sit out of the Reward Challenge (while still earning the reward) and automatically advance to the Immunity Challenge.

Twist History

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Summary

Season	Challenge		Sit-Out(s)			Voted Out
	Title	Winners	Castaway(s)	Stipulation	Granted Immunity?
Survivor 41 "Ready to Play Like a Lion", "There's Gonna Be Blood"	Keep Digging	Danny, Deshawn, Evvie, Ricard, Sydney	Erika Casupanan	The winning team would choose one of the two sit-outs to join them, sending the other player to Exile Island, where they were presented with the Hourglass Advantage.	Exiled, Broke Hourglass	Sydney Segal
			Naseer Muttalif		Chosen, Reversed by Hourglass
Survivor 42 "You Can't Hide on Survivor", "The Devil You Do or the Devil You Don't"	Rolling Stones	Hai, Jonathan, Lydia, Maryanne, Tori	Rocksroy Bailey	The winning team would choose one of the two sit-outs to join them, sending the other player to Exile Island, where they were presented with the Hourglass Advantage. The winning team was also given the option to exile one of their own members instead.	Exiled, Broke Hourglass	Lydia Meredith
			Lindsay Dolashewich		Chosen, Reversed by Hourglass
Survivor 43 "Mergatory"	No Quarter	Dwight, Gabler, Jeanine, Jesse, Karla, Ryan	Noelle Lambert	If the sit-out guessed the winning team correctly, they would join the winning team.	Chose Winning Team	Elie Scott
Survivor 44 "Survivor with a Capital S"	No Quarter	Brandon, Carolyn, Carson, Frannie, Jaime, Matt	None			Josh Wilder
Survivor 45 "I'm Not Batman, I'm the Canadian"	Super Ramp	Austin, Bruce, Drew, Julie, Kendra, Sifu	Katurah Topps	If the sit-out guessed the winning team correctly, they would join the winning team.	Chose Winning Team	J. Maya
Survivor 46 "Cancel Christmas"	Super Ramp	Ben, Hunter, Kenzie, Q, Tevin, Tim	Tiffany Nicole Ervin	If the sit-out guessed the winning team correctly, they would join the winning team.	Chose Winning Team	Moriah Gaynor
Survivor 47 "Feel the FOMO"	Feel the Earn	Kyle, Rachel, Sam, Sierra, Sue, Teeny	Genevieve Mushaluk	A Challenge Advantage allowed one player to sit out and advance to the individual Immunity Challenge. They also automatically earned the reward.		Rome Cooney
	Bow Diddley	Kyle Ostwald	None
Survivor 48 "Doing the Damn Thing"	Feel the Earn	Chrissy, David, Kamilla, Kyle, Mary, Star	Saiounia Hughley	A Challenge Advantage allowed one player to sit out and advance to the individual Immunity Challenge. They also automatically earned the reward.		Charity Nelms
	Over-Extended	Kyle Fraser	None

Trivia

• As of Survivor 46, every sit-out of an odd-numbered "Earn the Merge" has correctly guessed the winning team.
• Excluding the variants with no sit-outs or one person winning immunity, every episode with the Earn the Merge twist shares the record for most castaways with individual immunity at a single Tribal Council.
• The first two times the Earn the Merge challenge was played for individual (and not team) immunity, a man named Kyle ended up winning immunity: Ostwald in Survivor 47 and Fraser in Survivor 48.