After 25 Years, I Finally Made It On Survivor ... Only to Have My Kid Vote Me Off

I’ve loved the television show Survivor ever since it debuted 25 years ago.

I haven’t missed a single season of the CBS show that strands a group of folks on a island and has them strategically vote one another out until one of them wins a million dollars.

But over the past quarter century my relationship with the show has been a very passive one – sit, watch, repeat (expect for that time I sent in an application video, which I’m still waiting for the right CBS executive to take note of).

But thanks to my niece Allegra, that all changed two weeks ago.

Through a lot of hard work on her part, she staged a full season of Survivor (packed into one Saturday afternoon) for 22 of us – family and friends, spanning three generations and drawing people from as far away asAustin and Norway.

It had tribes and challenges, immunity idols and backstabbing (spoiler alert, I got voted out by one of my own kids).

It was quite an adventure. Grab your torch and come along for the ride ...

This whole thing started at Christmas when she was telling us about a Survivorthemed birthday party she had thrown for her husband Matt, where they played out a Survivor- season-in-a-day with their friends. Allegra planned and hosted it at a Houston park. It was full of challenges and voting – and it sounded amazing.

Someone said we ought to do one of those for a family gathering, and there was an enthusiastic response from several people.

Allegra rose to the challenge, as she has done with so many things in her life. Back in high school she was the drum major for the Mighty Leopard Band, then graduated from Texas A&M and now is an Activity Coordinator at Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Center in Houston.

In March a letter arrived in the mail at our house. The return address said it was from “Jeff Probst” the longtime host of Survivor. For a second I thought they had rediscovered my 10-year-old audition tape and were reaching back out. Instead, the letter inside invited us to “Survivor 26: Panaroma” on April 25.

The ‘26’ was a reference to 2026 and ‘Panorama’ was the name of the La Grange road her mom, my sister, Nancy lived on – where contest would be held.

The letter promised the possibility of advantages in the game for dressing up as a favorite Survivor and for bringing Survivor-themed snacks. It also said to prepare for games, and challenges reminiscent of school PE games.

We eagerly awaited the date and made preparations.

When we arrived my sister’s house had been decked out with streamers, banners, tiki torches, coconut cups and more.

Everyone seemed to have gone all-out with the themes. Allegra awarded my son Penn an immunity idol for dressing up as Survivor favorite Rupert Boneham, complete with a tiedyed shirt and beard. My wife Chrystal won the snack-theme immunity idol for bringing coconut popcorn, pretzel stick torches among other things.

Then Allegra explained the rules. We all picked a package wrapped in brown paper, and based on the color of the buffs contained inside, we were divided into three tribes named Baklava, Kolache and Strudel.

We then embarked on a trio of challenges pitting the three tribes against each other. Each challenge was multi-part. They included all manner of puzzles and combination locks and physical elements like walking balance beams or tying sticks together to reach keys.

The hardest of the challenges may have been the slide puzzle.

Allegra even incorporated three of those intricate 3-D flame puzzles I’ve seen them use on the show.

It was intense in a really fun way.

In addition to all the players (who ranged in age from about 4 to 60), there were at least a dozen family members that were spectating.

The two losing tribes after each challenge had to go to tribal council to vote a tribe member off.

There was lots of scheming.

Eventually the number of players got whittled down, and a merge occurred where we all became one tribe.

As the afternoon got hotter, things moved inside for individual challenges like stacking wooden blocks on a popsicle stick held in your mouth, how long can you balance a ping pong ball on an upside down paper plate, and a race to stack note cards to a certain height.

At one point I got wind that my 16-year-old son Deacon was trying to vote me out, so I had to vote him out first.

But only minutes later, our 10-year-old son Penn ended up being the one that voted me out.

Several immunity idols were played during the course of the game to save people. Some creative players made fake immunity idols that fooled players.

Finally there were only four people left – my brotherin- law Matt, two of the day’s youngest competitors Winnie and Liam, and my 22-year-old daughter Ella. Those of us on the jury questioned these finalists, trying to find out which of the four had best out-witted, out-played and out-lasted the rest of us, and deserved our vote as Sole Survivor. Ella ended up getting the most votes (she had played a great game and made no enemies), and Allegra presented her with a ceremonial check for one million dollars as the winner of Survivor 26: Panorama.

We all left with some great memories, and we didn’t have to sleep out in the jungle or eat anything gross to do it.