Ben Driebergen

Contestants

Ben Driebergen was one of 18 new players on the season, initially placed on the Levu tribe of Heroes. He later returned to compete on Survivor: Winners at War. Outside of Survivor, Driebergen competed on the first season of The Challenge: USA and on The Challenge: World Championship.

Reception and ratings

The season premiere on September 27, 2017, drew 8.33 million viewers, a significant increase over the previous season's all-time low of 7.64 million. The season received mixed response, with praise for the likable cast, entertaining tribal councils, and the gameplay of the Final 8, but the new Final Four Twist was mostly panned by critics. After winning the final immunity challenge, Chrissy Hofbeck was awarded an advantage to be used at the following Tribal Council.

She learned that in place of the conventional Day 38 final vote-off, she had to select one contestant to join her in the Final Tribal Council, while the remaining two contestants would be forced in a fire-making challenge to determine the third finalist. Due to the inclusion of this twist, Ben Driebergen, who was virtually guaranteed to be voted out without immunity, was allowed one final chance of avoiding elimination. He went on to win the challenge and advance to the Final Tribal Council, where he then went on to win the season.

Critics argued the twist undermined the significance of winning the final immunity challenge and removed fundamental social strategy from the game. Host and Executive Producer Jeff Probst confirmed that the twist's main goal was to prevent contestants like Ben from being eliminated one step away from the Final Tribal Council simply for being a threat to win the game.