Wednesday night, NaOnka and Purple Kelly whined for an hour before quitting "Survivor" and seriously angering the three former contestants already on the jury. Many fans wondered why someone who willingly leaves the game -- not because of an injury or other emergency -- should be allowed to participate any further, whether it be the reunion show or more important, the jury. Why should a quitter have any say in who wins a million dollars?
Well, host Jeff Probst has the answer for you in his EW.com blog:
"The reason they will both be members of the jury is because a precedent had already been set back when Janu quit in 'Survivor: Palau.' Janu quit the game but was allowed to be on the jury, so we used the same reasoning with Naonka and Purple Kelly. It wasn’t an emotional decision, just an issue of fairness."
He goes on to explain that yes, there is a major impact to the game when a player quits, but to ban the quitter(s) from the jury has a negative impact on those who are soldiering on. Consider Sash in this season. He was aligned with Purple Kelly, and denying her a spot on the jury could have punished him for playing a good game.
"We always strive to be fair," Probst wrote. "When you remove the emotion of the situation it’s easy that this was the 'fair' thing to do. It wasn’t a popular decision on location and we understand that as fans you really don’t like it at all, but it was the fair decision."
Regardless of whether you agree that the decision was fair, Probst does hint that this latest mess may lead to tweaks in the rules: "Will we look to make changes in the rules from this point forward…? Consider that a big YES."
At least that's some good news for fans. But are you ready to get even more annoyed by NaOnka and Purple Kelly's decision? Turns out that after they quit the game, they were basically treated to a vacation at the fancy Ponderosa camp, as RealityBlurred reports.
After the doctor checked them out and declared "their bodies are physically quite capable of keeping on going, but they just don’t want to be in it any more," the women were welcomed by the jury, then got a bunch of cash for a day trip. I guess quitters can be winners sometimes.
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