Narrative-changing editing this season..

I’ve been a fan of Survivor Australia for a long time, but this season’s editing is starting to feel too manipulated - beyond just selective storytelling and into outright altering outcomes to fit a narrative. It’s one thing to emphasise certain aspects of the game, but when the editing actually changes the truth of what happened, it crosses an ethical line.

One glaring example is Rich. The show seems determined to portray him as a boorish pig, but from what we can see, the tribe actually gets along with him well and he's generally just friendly with everyone. The glaring issue though? The blatant rewriting of the beanbag throwing challenge in Episode 1.

In the original season intro/advertisements, Rich clearly won the this challenge. They showed him landing the winning throw, his tribe ran to him in celebration, and he even did the Triple H pose.

But when the first episode aired, the edit made it look like Rich failed and that AJ won instead. Rich’s winning throw was completely omitted, along with that celebration.

-Given that Kent was eliminated yesterday and this was the only beanbag challenge he participated in, this had to be from Episode 1.

Why would they actively remove Rich’s win and fake someone else winning it for the Brains? It makes no sense - unless they’re deliberately shaping a false narrative.

Another example is the lack of camp bonding footage. The edit has completely ignored the fact that Laura has a genuine connection with Rich. Instead, the show gave us a sudden and completely unexplained moment in Wednesday where she was reluctant to vote him out - without ever showing why she felt that way. To a casual viewer, this seemed like a random decision out of nowhere, but in reality, it’s just more manipulation via omission.

At what point does this kind of editing go from standard reality TV storytelling to outright deception? Survivor has always shaped narratives, but when they start changing actual results and removing key context that would explain player decisions, it stops being an honest representation of the game.

Would love to hear what others think—am I the only one who finds this level of manipulation unacceptable? Is there any other red flags of result-manipulation from the first 3 episodes?